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pontificate,

Joazar, the son of Simon, was raised to the

Eleazar, brother of the preceding, A. M. 4004. A. D. 1.

Jesus, the son of Siah made high-priest, A. D. 6.

Ananus,

Ishmael,

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24.

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Matthias, the son of Theophilus,

70.

Phannias, the son of Samuel, high-priest at the destruction of Jerusalem,

70.

SECTION IV.

APPEARANCE OF THE MESSIAH.

DID any expectation prevail in the reign of Herod of the birth of the Messiah?

In the reign of Herod a very general expectation prevailed among the Jews, that some great deliverer would appear to destroy their oppressors and enemies, to

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vindicate their claims to the peculiar favour of God, and to elevate them to the empire of the world. Of this a curious instance is recorded by Josephus. The Pharisees-designated by that historian, men who had it in their power to controul kings, extremely subtle, and ready to attempt any thing against those they did not like"-the Pharisees, when the whole Jewish nation took an oath to be faithful to Cæsar, and to the interests of the king, refused, to the amount of six thousand men, to swear. Herod punished their contumacy by the imposition of a fine, which was generously paid by the wife of Pheroras. "They," continues Josephus, "in requital for her kindness (for they were supposed by their great intimacy with God to have attained the gift of foreknowledge) foretold that God, having decreed to put an end to the government of Herod and his race, that government would be transferred to her and Pheroras and their children." Of this prediction Herod was apprised by Salome, and " he put to death the most guilty of the Pharisees and Bagoas the eunuch-he likewise slew every one of his own family which adhered to those things which were spoken by the Pharisees. But Bagoas had been elevated by them (above the rest) for he was to be called father, and benefactor, the king who was to be appointed according to their prediction, for all things would be in his power, being to give him a capacity of marriage and of having children of his own.' However idle and ridiculous may have been the delusion of the Pharisees, their expectations plainly alluded to the advent, to the miracles, and to the regal authority of the Messiah.

What Roman historians have alluded to this general expectation of the appearance of the Messiah?

Two Roman historians of the highest authority, have alluded to this remarkable and prevalent anticipation of a Messiah. Suetonius, in his life of Vespasian, has these remarkable words. "There had been for a long time all over the East a constant persuasion, that it was in the fates, that at that time some who should come of Judæa should obtain universal dominion. It appeared by the event, that this prediction referred to the Roman emperor; but the Jews, referring it to

themselves, rebelled." The language of Tacitus is yet more explicit. "The generality had a strong persuasion that it was contained in the ancient writings of the priests, that at that very time, the East should prevail, and that some who should come out of Judæa should obtain the empire of the world. Which ambiguities foretold Vespasian and Titus. But the common people (of the Jews) according to the usual influence of human wishes, appropriated to themselves, by their interpretation, the vast grandeur foretold by the fates, nor could be brought to change their opinions for the true, by all their adversities."

How has Josephus confirmed this testimony?

Josephus says, "That which chiefly excited the Jews to war, was an ambiguous prophecy which was found in the sacred books, that at that time some one within their country should arise, who should obtain the empire of the whole world. For this they had received by tradition, that it was spoken by one of their nation, and many wise men were deceived by their interpretation. But in truth Vespasian's empire was designed in this prophecy, who was created emperor in Judæa." In this testimony the Jew places himself upon a level with the heathens; but that testimony, at the same time, is important, because it shows, that this expectation of a glorious deliverer was derived from the Sacred Writings; that it not only prevailed among the common people, but among the wise men and teachers; that it fixed upon one who was to exist in Judæa, and that it referred to a mysterious subjugation of the world.

Do these passages refer to the expectation of the Messiah?

There

It is true that the passages which have been quoted, relate more particularly to the time of Vespasian, but the expectation of which they speak is declared to have previously existed, and was no doubt most intense towards the termination of the reign of Herod. is no doubt that this expectation which was so prevalent among the Jews, that one of their most distinguished sects even fixed upon such a person as Bagoas to be the great national emancipator, was

excited by those most decisive predictions of inspiration, which not only foretold the appearance of the Messiah, but the exact time when he should commence his operations of mercy and irradiate the world by his glory. The prophecy of the seventy weeks by Daniel for instance, would induce every unprejudiced reader to fix upon this very period for the accomplishment of that wonderful change, which in the language rather of an historian than of a prophet he described.

Describe the general misconception of the Jews relative to the real character of the Messiah?

While from the perusal of their own Scriptures, the Jews entertained a general expectation of the appearance of the Messiah about the period when he actually came, they were so blinded by their ignorance or ambition, that they totally misunderstood the meaning and intention of the predictions of inspiration. Confining their attention to the letter, and overlooking the spirit, of many of those predictions, they believed that their Messiah was to sustain an exclusively secular character and exercise a merely temporal power; that he was to appear a warrior, a conqueror, a sovereign; that the blessings of his reign were to consist in civil deliverance, in civil immunities, and civil grandeur— that, in one word, he was to make the Jews the conquerors of the world, and Jerusalem the metropolis of the universe.

How was this misconception exemplified in the history of Christ?

When the Jews saw the Son of God drive from the temple the vast multitude of those who prostituted and profaned that sacred edifice, consisting not only of hundreds of thousands but of millions, they perceived that he had only to exert his power, to display the glory of his countenance, and the majesty of his form, to defeat all the armies of all the empires upon the surface of the globe; and no doubt on the very evening after he had performed so wonderful an exploit, Nicodemus a Pharisee, a man of official dignity, was sent to sound him upon his pretensions to the character he professed to sustain, and to discover when and how he intended to commence his conquering career.

And

when afterwards, they perceived, by the miraculous supply which he furnished to five thousand men from five loaves and two fishes, that his resourses were as boundless as his energy was invincible and terrible, they said, “This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world," and they were ready to take him by force and to make him a king. But when they found that his kingdom was not of this world; that he came to commence no earthly dynasty, and to establish no earthly throne; that he continued so poor, that though the foxes had their holes and the birds of the air their nests, he had not where to lay his head, they spurned away all his claims with contempt, and treated him as one of the vilest impostors that ever excited the detestation of mankind. It will be peculiarly advantageous to bear in mind this cause of the rejection of the Redeemer by the Jews, in the perusal of the subsequent narrative.

What was the moral condition of the Jews at this period?

Perhaps there never was a people more degraded and demoralized, than the Jews at the time of the incarnation of Christ. According to the testimony of Josephus, the chief-priests and popular leaders were a set of profligate wretches, who had purchased their places by bribes and acts of iniquity, and who maintained their ill acquired authority by the most flagitious and abominable crimes. The flagrant example of the men of influence and power, infected the whole mass of the population with the same contagion of pollution; the professed ministers of religion, the pretended servants of God, abandoned themselves to the practice of every kind of wickedness; and the populace, seditious, cruel, perfidious, and corrupt, were awfully prepared for the tremendous judgments of God which so soon involved the whole nation in one common ruin. This wretched state of moral and political degradation, in which the Jews were found by the ministry of the Redeemer, is repeatedly described in the most affecting manner by the writers of the New Testament. Their base hypocricy, in making a public parade of superior benevolence and sanctity, while they were habitually guilty of the most shameful violations of justice and hu

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